Staff
Sondra Youdelman
Executive Director
Sondra has been at CVH since 2000 and was named the organization’s Executive Director in March 2007; she was previously CVH’s Director of Public Policy and Research. Sondra has worked both in the United States and abroad to achieve social and economic justice through organizing. She has over 15 years experience as an organizer and activist with grassroots groups including farm workers, Native Americans, public housing residents, and low-income workers in the United States, and abroad for various populations throughout Latin America and in several African countries. She obtained a Master’s Degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School in order to gain policy analysis tools to bring back to the grassroots. She also has a BA in American Studies focusing on Oppression and Revolution from Wesleyan University.
Henry Serrano
Senior Organizer / Voter Engagement Project Coordinator
Henry first joined CVH as an Organizer in 2001, and was named Senior Organizer at CVH in Spring 2003. In addition to his own organizing work, supervises and guides the work of our other organizers. He is also responsible for developing and leading our Voter Engagement Project. His early work for Community Voices Heard was as the organizer working on winning implementation of the Transitional Jobs Program and organizing Parks Opportunity Program workers. His previous organizing experience includes 2 years of neighborhood-based grassroots organizing in Brooklyn for ACORN on issues including housing, education, and neighborhood services. Henry has a BA degree from New York University in comparative literature.
Michelle Perez
Director of Administration & Institutional Giving
Michelle joined Community Voices Heard as Development Director in May 2002. She is very pleased to turn her efforts to economic justice projects after having worked in fundraising for arts/community development organizations for 19 years. She has previously worked for the Jamaica Center for Arts and Learning, Meet The Composer, the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, and The Joffrey Ballet. Michelle has a BA degree in Economics/Political Economy from Barnard College, and has done graduate work in business administration at New York University.
Vincent Villano
Policy & Research Coordinator
Vincent joined CVH in November 2008 as the Policy and Research Coordinator. Vincent has worked in the NYC housing field for the past two years. His research experience includes, most recently, partnering with national and local organizations to investigate the feasibility of using the human rights approach in NYC housing struggles. Vincent has experience working in solidarity with groups who are most affected by injustice as well as organizing his peers for more decision-making power. He has been an ally for movements ranging from Chiapas to Harlem and Venezuela while, on the organizing front, he has agitated for change both as a student and as a union member. Vincent received a BA from Bowdoin College, where he completed an honor's thesis on Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata. He received a Master's degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University where he focused his studies on the right to housing in the U.S. Vincent is excited to be in a position to do research that supports CVH's direct organizing campaigns.
Taja Lindley
Grassroots Fundraising & Communications Coordinator
Taja is a recent graduate from New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study where she designed her own major, concentrating in Public Policy and Knowledge Production with a focus on Women of Color. Her academic work troubled the notion of the "expert," especially as it relates to policy, to include "experience-as-expertise" and to ensure that traditionally and currently marginalized communities are included in the policy-making process. She has three years of policy experience with various non-profits, research institutes and on Capitol Hill concerning federal and state legislation affecting general health disparities, reproductive justice and immigration. Before coming to CVH, Taja participated in a year-long human rights fellowship, funded by Third Millennium Foundation, where she had an opportunity to work with a grassroots women's organization in Ghana to address gender-based issues such as sexual and reproductive health, witchcraft allegations and disinheritance. Taja first joined CVH as the inaugural Gail Aska Policy and Research Fellow to support the organization's economic justice work as it relates to welfare, workforce development and anti-poverty policy, research and organizing. In May 2010, Taja transitioned into the Grassroots Fundraising & Communications Coordinator position with CVH.
Monique "Mo" George
Public Housing Partnership Director
Mo (as she prefers to be called) joins CVH as the Public Housing Campaign Director. Mo's organizing experience started in college where she worked locally with NYPIRG as their Campus Leader. Upon graduation, Mo accepted an organizer position at SEIU Local 1199 where she worked for 9 years. After leaving 1199, Mo moved on to become the Lead Organizer at the Empire state Pride Agenda, where she fought for the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. At Pride Agenda, Mo led various statewide campaigns, including further developing their annual statewide lobby day from 400 to over 1000 participants during her tenure there. After the recent passing of her grandmother (who raised her), Mo resigned from Pride Agenda and decided to spend some time traveling the world, including time in Paris, Italy and other parts of France. Mo is now back home in New York, and is excited to be working with CVH members on Public Housing. As a proud product of "the projects," she feels that public housing must be preserved. Mo holds her BA degree from SUNY New Paltz, and an MPA from Metropolitan College. When Mo is not trying to change the world, she is usually either reading a good book, traveling or just enjoying New York with her partner of 3 years.
Juanita Lewis
Yonkers Organizer
Juanita O. Lewis is excited to bring her experience to CVH. She began her work as a community organizer with the Minnesota chapter of ACORN. Since 2004, she has worked on 10 campaigns in various roles, ranging from field organizer, campaign manager to fundraiser. Juanita was highly involved in the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party, serving as Saint Paul Senate District 66 chair, and secretary of the African American Caucus. She has also been a board member and chair of three non-profit boards, and is currently a fundraising trainer for the White House Project. Juanita was born and raised in Saint Paul, MN. She graduated from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities with a B.A. in History and Political Science, and recently graduated with her Masters of Advocacy and Political Leadership from the University of Minnesota-Duluth.
Jenny Loeb
Chapter Coordinator Organizer
Jenny has been with CVH since May 2007 as the first Mid-Hudson Valley Community Organizer. She worked to establish the chapters in Newburgh and Poughkeepsie and continues to organize in both locations. Operating out of the Newburgh office, Jenny works to recruit and develop low-income residents to lead local campaigns around community development, housing, and social services, as well as work with the other chapters to build statewide power. Before joining CVH, Jenny was active in student government movements, Hudson Valley politics, and drug policy/criminal justice reform. She has a BA in Sociology from SUNY New Paltz.
Jennifer Hadlock
Welfare and Workforce Organizer
Jennifer Hadlock became the Welfrae and Workforce Organizer for CVH in December 2009. She has over ten years of organizing experience in Hartford, Connecticut starting in neighborhood organizing of tenants and youth, and later organized around welfare and drug policy. She is proud to have worked on a campaign to win a Community Center for the neighborhood where she worked and to have helped start an organization. She also has experience organizing in the violence against women movement, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. She has a psychology degree from Washington University in Saint Louis and JD/MSW from University of Connecticut. In her spare time she goes to visit and skypes with her seven nieces and nephews.
Carmen Piñeiro
Sustainable Communities Organizer
Carmen Pineiro has been an activist for over 11 years and an organizer for a year as CVH’s Harlem-based Sustainable Communities Organizer. Her work and passion focuses on low- and moderate-income communities. She has an Associate’s degree in Paralegal Studies from Bronx Community College and a Bachelor’s in Government with a concentration in law from John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She is currently working on her Master’s in Public Administration with a concentration in Government and the Law, also from John Jay. She has participated in programs such as the Minority Worker Environmental program where she earned 15 licenses and certificates in Environmental Remediation as well as a program through (NEW) Non-traditional Employment for Women where she learned basic construction skills. She is a domestic violence survivor who grew up in the Morrisania Air Rights Projects in the South Bronx, who also went through the shelter system and now lives in rent stabilized housing. She has had to navigate the system in various capacities which has led her to the important work she feels is necessary in our neighborhoods. She is a single mother of three children - a teenage daughter and 2 boys.
Kflu Kflu
Public Housing Field Coordinator
Before coming to CVH, Kflu worked as a Community Organizer with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition (NWBCCC) . At the NWBCCC , Kflu worked on campaigns that included: Armory Redevelopment Alliance, HPD Code Enforcement, Education Committee, Anti-Filtration plant and other general quality of life neighborhood issues. After NWBCCC, Kflu worked as an organizer in East Baltimore with the Save Middle East Action Committee fighting the displacement of Middle East Baltimore residents by Johns Hopkins University, in the largest urban renewal project in the country. Kflu in his current capacity at CVH is working as a Field Coordinator of the Public Housing Campaign, and is currently exploring ways to align his lifelong values of building truth to power.
Rae Leiner
Newburgh Organizer
Rae Leiner joined the CVH staff, as our Newburgh Organizer, in 2010. Rae is a native child of the Bronx. Born, raised and nurtured in the cultural and economic diversity of the landscape, the need to find a balance as a multi racial queer identified person became essential to survival. Rae has been actively involved in racial, social, environmental, food and economic justice struggles of people of color for the past 10 years. Working with a diverse population dealing with diverse issues throughout the Bronx and New York City, Rae’s work was primarily focus on youth and youth development for the past 9 years. Rae has worked for various organizations such as Critical Resistance, For A Better Bronx and Youth At Risk to name a few. Working in coalitions such as Community in Unity and with organizations like Malcolm X Grassroots Movement against police brutality, conducting cop watch trainings and know your rights workshops. Rae has actively engaged in food justice work in the Mott Haven neighborhoods of the South Bronx helping to launch the second urban farm, La Finca del Sur and helping to support the farmers market at Padre Plaza Community Garden. Rae has engaged in consensus building work, non-violent communication, undoing racism and internalized oppression work and has been trained in deep listening techniques through a model called Be Present.
Edgar Gomez
Poughkeepsie Organizer
Edgar is originally from Queens, NY and went to Brooklyn College in which he was active on campus and involved with several Latino student organizations and he was representative on Student Government. After Edgar graduated in 2007 with a BA in sociology he did some volunteer organizing with the Venceremos Brigade which is an organization that protests and openly challenges the US travel ban on Cuba. He moved to Poughkeepsie in 2010 and is now working to reinvigorate the Poughkeepsie chapter as well as working to establish campaigns that address the needs of low-income residents in Poughkeepsie. He is excited to be working with the Poughkeepsie membership to help bring the much needed changes to our community. He would like to see a unified network of residents and organizations that work tirelessly to be agents of change locally, statewide and nationwide. Edgar@CVHaction.org
Pam Brown
Gail Aska Policy & Research Fellow
Pam had a lucrative career for over 20 years on Wall Street which was abruptly ended in 2007 when she refused to target people of color selling sub-prime mortgages. By May 2009 Pam found herself separated with 2 children in college applying for welfare. She is the first person in her family that ever had to apply for aid. However those two years on public assistance has defined her life work to eradicate workfare based on oppressive policies.